Religion 2013 – Politics 2013
Pope Francis calls on the Church to divest itself of ‘worldliness’
(RawStory.com) In an address to the poor, he said: “Many of you have been stripped down by this savage world that does not give jobs, that does not help that does not care about children dying of hunger.”
Nathan: And just how does this differ from what the Lord lived in 2,000 years ago. Exactly 2,000 years ago, He was probably about 16 or 17, and his father was no doubt having much the same problems as any small businessman or craftsman does today. And those around Him included everyone from the very poor to the insanely wealthy, but whom by today’s standards we would consider ALL very poor.
Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, he gets this just backwards. What the poor people of the world need is the same thing we all need… freedom. The end of official theft and coercion, government murder and war… these are the things that bring starvation and death, prevents wealth creation, stops trade and insures hopelessness to billions of people. He needs to understand that the “world” can’t “give jobs,” or anything else. Having everyone sitting around starving in sackcloth and ashes solves nothing.
Nathan: Indeed, the Man whom Francis claims to be the Vicar of did NOT condemn the wealthy for being wealthy, but rather pitied them because it is so hard for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because of their riches and the attitudes those riches engender in them. His Gospel was one of personal salvation: change yourself and change others one or a few at a time, and YOU and THEY will change the society and the nation and the world around you: not by FORCING the world to change, but by your example and your actions.
Christians stopped the awful practice of exposing unwanted babies (equal to our modern partial-birth abortions and abortion in general) not by changing the laws, but by ignoring the law and proving God’s love in them by loving others. Eventually, even a severely-degraded christianity stopped (for the most part, in most of the world, in an obvious form) the institution of chattel slavery, again not by changing the law (that came later) but by showing and proving love and helping people to change to see that their profession of following the Christ could not match with slavery.
Catholicism and their Orthodox and Protestant counterparts today have made a mockery of religion by claiming to be the church of the Lord, yet substituting a social gospel (“change the society and you change the person”) for that Gospel He brought to this earth. Jesus did not say “You must give jobs to people,” nor did He say “You must force others to pay money to keep children from starving,” or “You must get laws passed to make people help each other.” He taught and did what was right voluntarily for the love of God and your fellow man, and because obedience to Him was given freely and sincerely because those who loved Him wanted to prove their love and thus fulfill their OWN goals and desires. They could not “give themselves to others” because they had already given themselves to their Creator, for their OWN eternal destiny and not because they were altruistic or forced to do so. Until Francis and those around him and like him – from the Patriarch of Athens to the President of the LdS to the Archbishop of Canterbury all understand Christ and His Gospel, not politics and power and pressure and wealth, they will not be able to change the world.
Economy 2013 – New religions: environism
United States Becomes Largest Oil-and-Gas Producer
(Wall Street Journal) The United States produced the equivalent of about 22 million barrels a day of oil, natural gas and related fuels in July; Moscow’s forecast for 2013 oil-and-gas production works out to about 21.8 million barrels a day…
Nathan: Well, well. Guess maybe we are not all washed up economically after all. Of course, this is IN SPITE OF the federal and state governments’ interference with every aspect of oil and gas; just imagine what it would be like in a free market! Of course, this is just HIDEOUS according to the Environists and similar religions, especially that of the Global Warming Cultists (GWC) who now have decided that “fossil fuels” are best left in the ground forever…
Stupid government – Theft by government
Federal Budget: “Use It or Lose It”
(NCPA) In many cases, Congress requires agencies to spend all their allotted funds by Sept. 30 or lose the money; as a result, in a single day, the Agriculture Department spent $144,000 on toner cartridges…
Nathan: This has been so much a part of everyday life for me for three-plus decades that I forget that most people don’t understand how broken the federal purchasing system has ALWAYS been. This is called “obligation” which means that money from FY12 (which ended on 30 September) can be used to buy things even if they are not actually delivered until FY 13 (which began on 1 October). When the vendor is paid for the goods, he gets paid with “last year’s” money. HONEST! I’m NOT making this up. Congress hasn’t authorized any NEW money for this new fiscal year, either through that old-fashioned budget and program system OR through some piece of garbage legislation called a “continuing resolution.” The entire system is set up to nominally control the spending of every penny, but has gone so far overboard that it in reality promotes waste and makes it EASIER to commit fraud and abuse the system. That is why spending $5 billion dollars awarding contracts the day before the “shutdown” is not the big deal that so many people want to make it out to be. For that matter, even the $2 billion dollars a day in various things is not an intentional zinger against the shutdown but just the way they are doing business. What IS directly and obviously thumbing their noses at the shutdown is the fact that 75% of federal workers were NOT furloughed because they were “essential.”
Stupid People – Hoplophobes and Hoploclasts
Cleveland: NFL Rule Revokes “Only Ones” Status of Off-Duty Cops Carrying Guns
(Examiner.com) “NFL rule bans off-duty cops from bringing guns into FirstEnergy Stadium,” Brandon Blackwell reported Friday on Cleveland.com. “A new NFL policy will keep off-duty cops from taking guns into FirstEnergy Stadium,
Mama’s Note: I seriously doubt that… Even if someone “asks” or searches them at the gate. Remember, only “law abiding” folks disarm on command.
Nathan: Yes, calling cops “law-abiding” is a joke. Of course, unless they are running everyone through metal dectectors, and unless their security force is NOT a bunch of off-duty cops themselves, it is likely that even those with more “dubious” authorization to carry are going to get by. So there is a good chance that NFL fans will still have some level of “unofficial” protection. Obviously the Examiner needs to assume that the ban will be carefully and fairly enforced, but you can be sure that it will not be, in the best interests of the security guards responsible for administering it, themselves. They don’t want to be facing that off-duty cop looking up from their driver’s window next time they have a heavy foot on the gas pedal.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Libertarian Commentary on the News, #13-39B: Religions and government and guns
Religion 2013 – Politics 2013
Pope Francis calls on the Church to divest itself of ‘worldliness’
(RawStory.com) In an address to the poor, he said: “Many of you have been stripped down by this savage world that does not give jobs, that does not help that does not care about children dying of hunger.”
Nathan: And just how does this differ from what the Lord lived in 2,000 years ago. Exactly 2,000 years ago, He was probably about 16 or 17, and his father was no doubt having much the same problems as any small businessman or craftsman does today. And those around Him included everyone from the very poor to the insanely wealthy, but whom by today’s standards we would consider ALL very poor.
Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, he gets this just backwards. What the poor people of the world need is the same thing we all need… freedom. The end of official theft and coercion, government murder and war… these are the things that bring starvation and death, prevents wealth creation, stops trade and insures hopelessness to billions of people. He needs to understand that the “world” can’t “give jobs,” or anything else. Having everyone sitting around starving in sackcloth and ashes solves nothing.
Nathan: Indeed, the Man whom Francis claims to be the Vicar of did NOT condemn the wealthy for being wealthy, but rather pitied them because it is so hard for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because of their riches and the attitudes those riches engender in them. His Gospel was one of personal salvation: change yourself and change others one or a few at a time, and YOU and THEY will change the society and the nation and the world around you: not by FORCING the world to change, but by your example and your actions.
Christians stopped the awful practice of exposing unwanted babies (equal to our modern partial-birth abortions and abortion in general) not by changing the laws, but by ignoring the law and proving God’s love in them by loving others. Eventually, even a severely-degraded christianity stopped (for the most part, in most of the world, in an obvious form) the institution of chattel slavery, again not by changing the law (that came later) but by showing and proving love and helping people to change to see that their profession of following the Christ could not match with slavery.
Catholicism and their Orthodox and Protestant counterparts today have made a mockery of religion by claiming to be the church of the Lord, yet substituting a social gospel (“change the society and you change the person”) for that Gospel He brought to this earth. Jesus did not say “You must give jobs to people,” nor did He say “You must force others to pay money to keep children from starving,” or “You must get laws passed to make people help each other.” He taught and did what was right voluntarily for the love of God and your fellow man, and because obedience to Him was given freely and sincerely because those who loved Him wanted to prove their love and thus fulfill their OWN goals and desires. They could not “give themselves to others” because they had already given themselves to their Creator, for their OWN eternal destiny and not because they were altruistic or forced to do so. Until Francis and those around him and like him – from the Patriarch of Athens to the President of the LdS to the Archbishop of Canterbury all understand Christ and His Gospel, not politics and power and pressure and wealth, they will not be able to change the world.
Economy 2013 – New religions: environism
United States Becomes Largest Oil-and-Gas Producer
(Wall Street Journal) The United States produced the equivalent of about 22 million barrels a day of oil, natural gas and related fuels in July; Moscow’s forecast for 2013 oil-and-gas production works out to about 21.8 million barrels a day…
Nathan: Well, well. Guess maybe we are not all washed up economically after all. Of course, this is IN SPITE OF the federal and state governments’ interference with every aspect of oil and gas; just imagine what it would be like in a free market! Of course, this is just HIDEOUS according to the Environists and similar religions, especially that of the Global Warming Cultists (GWC) who now have decided that “fossil fuels” are best left in the ground forever…
Stupid government – Theft by government
Federal Budget: “Use It or Lose It”
(NCPA) In many cases, Congress requires agencies to spend all their allotted funds by Sept. 30 or lose the money; as a result, in a single day, the Agriculture Department spent $144,000 on toner cartridges…
Nathan: This has been so much a part of everyday life for me for three-plus decades that I forget that most people don’t understand how broken the federal purchasing system has ALWAYS been. This is called “obligation” which means that money from FY12 (which ended on 30 September) can be used to buy things even if they are not actually delivered until FY 13 (which began on 1 October). When the vendor is paid for the goods, he gets paid with “last year’s” money. HONEST! I’m NOT making this up. Congress hasn’t authorized any NEW money for this new fiscal year, either through that old-fashioned budget and program system OR through some piece of garbage legislation called a “continuing resolution.” The entire system is set up to nominally control the spending of every penny, but has gone so far overboard that it in reality promotes waste and makes it EASIER to commit fraud and abuse the system. That is why spending $5 billion dollars awarding contracts the day before the “shutdown” is not the big deal that so many people want to make it out to be. For that matter, even the $2 billion dollars a day in various things is not an intentional zinger against the shutdown but just the way they are doing business. What IS directly and obviously thumbing their noses at the shutdown is the fact that 75% of federal workers were NOT furloughed because they were “essential.”
Stupid People – Hoplophobes and Hoploclasts
Cleveland: NFL Rule Revokes “Only Ones” Status of Off-Duty Cops Carrying Guns
(Examiner.com) “NFL rule bans off-duty cops from bringing guns into FirstEnergy Stadium,” Brandon Blackwell reported Friday on Cleveland.com. “A new NFL policy will keep off-duty cops from taking guns into FirstEnergy Stadium,
Mama’s Note: I seriously doubt that… Even if someone “asks” or searches them at the gate. Remember, only “law abiding” folks disarm on command.
Nathan: Yes, calling cops “law-abiding” is a joke. Of course, unless they are running everyone through metal dectectors, and unless their security force is NOT a bunch of off-duty cops themselves, it is likely that even those with more “dubious” authorization to carry are going to get by. So there is a good chance that NFL fans will still have some level of “unofficial” protection. Obviously the Examiner needs to assume that the ban will be carefully and fairly enforced, but you can be sure that it will not be, in the best interests of the security guards responsible for administering it, themselves. They don’t want to be facing that off-duty cop looking up from their driver’s window next time they have a heavy foot on the gas pedal.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.